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I went all the way through Catholic grammar school and high school. I had more religious teachers in grammar school and more non-religious teachers in high school.
Truth be told, I did NOT like most of the nuns in grammar school, except one. I did NOT like most of the priests in high school, either. I always got along with the non-religious teachers. I don't know if I found their outfits foreboding. In grammar school, some of the nuns were meaner than the non-religious teachers. In high school, most of the priests were more formal and less approachable than the non-religious teachers, with whom you could have a very relaxed discussion.
I know that, for years at a time, I have distanced myself from the Catholic religion and have not gone to church. I've returned every now and then.
I will add that I attended a public middle school for 1/2 a year because we were out of the country one summer and came back "later" than the start date, and the Catholic high school told me I had to come in January, so the public school had to take me from October to December. I have pretty good memories from that brief period and remember that I liked the teachers and the students more than the ones in Catholic school.
What's your spin on Catholic school if you have attended and how has it "flavored" you?
My SO is the product of an upbringing that is nominally/culturally Catholic at best (large, Italian New Yorker family, second/third generation American, but rarely attended mass). He did, however, attend private Catholic prep school, and went on to a public university. He does not consider himself to be particularly religious, although he occasionally attends church with me. He is not particularly interested in organized religion, but nobody in his family is...he was sent to Catholic schools because they were considered "the best," not because of the religious affiliation.
I, myself, attended church regularly, went to public elementary and high school, went to a private parochial college. I have not distanced myself from my religious background as I've aged, and the combo of public primary/secondary schooling and parochial college really didn't impact my faith one way or another. I'm not Catholic, though, I'm Lutheran.
I went to a Catholic high school. My family is not Catholic (or any other particular religion), but my parents thought I would be getting a better college prep than the local public high school. My experience there didn't do anything for my "faith" other than that I learned the "terminology" for my beliefs (agnostic). I don't think it did much for my college prep either. On paper it looked good, but in reality I made my first 2 C's my first semester of college (chemistry and calculus, both of which I had taken in high school.)
I went to a Catholic high school. My family is not Catholic (or any other particular religion), but my parents thought I would be getting a better college prep than the local public high school. My experience there didn't do anything for my "faith" other than that I learned the "terminology" for my beliefs (agnostic). I don't think it did much for my college prep either. On paper it looked good, but in reality I made my first 2 C's my first semester of college (chemistry and calculus, both of which I had taken in high school.)
What did you think of the priests and the nuns? Did you like them? I found that they made me uptight. I could actually have enjoyable conversations with the non-religious teachers. I'm still wondering what that's all about.
My experience with nuns was that most (not all) were very unhappy and bitter.They also could be very abusive (physical and verbal)!This was in the 70's...I sent both my children to Catholic school from ec4 through 8th ( after which they both attended a public IB program),lucky for them there were no nuns and they were taught by lay teachers.I would never let them be subjected to the nonsense I was, all in the name of Jesus!
What did you think of the priests and the nuns? Did you like them? I found that they made me uptight. I could actually have enjoyable conversations with the non-religious teachers. I'm still wondering what that's all about.
One of the nuns had the most hideous personality I have ever encountered. Most of the other nuns were approachable, and one was actually kind of cool. We only had 2 priests there. One was an administrator who I never actually spoke to. The other was fairly decent. A bunch of us used to hang out in his office during lunch.
With all that said, this school was fairly liberal as far as Catholic schools go... the nuns wore regular clothes, and the priest wore regular shirts with the collar. We had all kinds of interesting conversations, but no one ever got 'preachy' with us... mostly it was just normal sound advice that anyone would/should give a teenager.
The other teachers were a mix just like anywhere else... some okay, others not.
I attended Catholic school for 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th grades. A combination of nuns and lay teachers taught me. The best and nicest of them was a nun, and I remember a sweet second grade lay teacher. The remaining nuns and female lay teachers (and a couple of priests) were a pain in the behind or unapproachable. Strict for strict's sake, or mean. But then again, I could be mouthy and irreverent at times in the middle school years, so they were probably too through with me.
The strictness, crankiness and, at times, downright meaness of the Catholic school teachers did distance me from the faith somewhat. But I haven't sensed this attitude when I have toured potential Catholic schools for my children. They don't attend any, but one of them may when it's time for middle school.
I grew up going to Catholic schools and my parents, hardly devout Catholics, raised me as a Catholic. As of today, it's been about 15 years since I've been to a Catholic mass.
In elementary school, k-7, I had mostly non-ordained teachers, except for one nun who taught the Catechism classes. She routinely singled me out in 5th through 7th grade for asking "tough" questions that demonstrated my "lack" of faith. I asked about how Adam and Even's family procreated without committing incest and how Moses's family did the same after the flood. I asked questions about how a "merciful" god could slaughter so many people throughout the Bible and how a merciful god could knowingly bring a "son" into the world as a human and then condemn that "son" to die a horrible death. So I guess I was asking for her ostracism.
In high school, I had a couple of priests as teachers. They taught math and sciences. Most of the other teachers had at least a master's degree in their subject area and were awesome teachers. They instilled into me a love for learning for learning's sake that continues to this day.
The priests were not the stereotypical Catholic school type priests. They allowed us to question our faith and actually encouraged us to do so. But at the same time, they forced us to go to mass and foamed at the mouth when it was time to play our archrival in whatever sport.
After graduation, I realized that this whole religion thing is concocted by humankind and we don't have the answers to the heady philosophical questions that religion attempts to answer. For that reason, I haven't been to church since high school, with the exception of a mid-night mass here or there when I was in my late teens and early twenties. But the Catholic school experience was not all-bad, nor was it all-good. I did find that in college I was much more prepared for my studies than were my public school peers.
That being said, I have a cousin who is a pre-Vatican II Catholic. She and her husband only attend Latin mass; they never eat meat on Friday, lent or not. She has 11 children and another on the way. All of her kids are home-schooled because she doesn't approve of the Catholic schools in her area, much less the public schools. She and her husband are autocrats. Her oldest two boys, 18 and 16, read on the 5th grade level and their parents are find with this. She even says that they will go to college "over her dead body" because in college they will be forced to learn about evolution. The four girls she has must wear skirts all of the time, no pants are allowed. They read on the 2nd grade level and she's fine with this. She says women are on earth only to repopulate it and have no need for book knowledge, which is the spawn of Satan anyway. My cousin and her husband even claim that Apple computers are the spawn of the devil and corrupt the mind. And on their computers, they have parental controls set to filter out anything porn related (obviously) and anything science-related, yet the kids do go to the doctor regularly (go figure).
My other cousins claim that Laura and her jerk husband are part of an uber-Catholic movement in America designed to purify the faith and American politics and culture. both of these people are educated. He has a degree in engineering and she has one in elementary ed. Yet they will not allow their kids to attend college, probably because they'll need the labor power of the three eldest boys to help make ends meet. The husband recently lost his job. They have yet to sign up for welfare and are getting support from members of their uber-Catholic community.
I don't know what to think about them other than they are extremists and insane. Of course, not all Catholics are like this. Laura and her husband, btw, both went to public schools.
While not I am not Catholic, I've always been impressed by the Jesuit school of thought in regard to education and social justice, and if I had the opportunity for a child of mine to attend a Jesuit school, I'd not have a problem with it.
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